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Thursday Aug 16, 2007

Wet and Muddy ...and still loving it!!

My new job is taking over my life, although i have never been happier, its a fantastic job and its taking up lots of my time - its just making it difficult for me to blog, sorry!!

So as well as starting a great new job, working with young homeless people getting them to volunteer, i have spent the summer at music festivals.

With the strange weather we have been having this summer, i suppose it wasnt too surprising that they have been really really wet and muddy. I have been told that Glastonbury wouldnt be the same without it - however after 5 days of constant rain and knee deep mud - my boyfriend and i decided that by Sunday, mud really wasnt that glorious after all and our beds and showers were calling us.

We had hoped that WOMAD would be slightly drier...we were wrong!! again knee deep mud and losing our wellies as they got stuck. At WOMAD similar to last year, as volunteers for Oxfam, we were asked to work on the accessible camping area, we quickly realised that mud and wheel-chairs don't go well together, by the second day half of the people using this area to camp in had gone home after struggling to get round the site on 4 wheels. It was really sad to see people leave and to keep a smile on our face while volunteering - making it even more important to remember that we were doing it for the fantastic cause, Oxfam (and the free tickets!!) 

Glastonbury despite being wet mainly attracted people who were happy to party in the rain and roll in the mud, we even had a number of rather drunk people who after having mud baths were keen to hug us ...we did our best to avoid this affection! I was responsible for supervising a team of 20 volunteers, keeping them happy and dry where possible, this was manic yet great fun - although after 8 hours standing in the rain it became a challenge to keep a smile on our faces!

Despite the rain, mud and moans i love festivals and will keep going back for more, remembering the difference we are able to make to Oxfam's work overseas.  

Posted by Helen Bryant ( 9:42 AM )
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